


you see the things they never see

by hiza-chan (callunavulgari)



Series: winds of the etherium [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts, Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 03:44:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/hiza-chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Axel hadn't expected Roxas to be so... Roxas. He hadn't expected the sudden and inexplicable desire to bring the kid soup when it became apparent that he was too afraid to brave the mess hall. Or the urge, so very strong, to let Roxas know each and every detail of his life. Never trust pirates, they said, but Roxas did. He did and it hurt Axel in ways he didn't know possible that when the time came, he might not be able to stop Larxene or one of the others from slitting his throat. (Or, ten short glimpses into the life of a space pirate.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	you see the things they never see

**Author's Note:**

> A sequel to Winds of the Etherium. Except not porny. This was supposed to be a 10-things-headcanon thing, but it turned into... well, a sequel, not just headcanon drabbles. So there.

**1\. Storytime**  
  
When Axel was a boy, his older brother Zack liked to tell him stories. Most kids heard stories about pirates- ferocious and power hungry with a knackering for gold, jewels, and helpless women. But not Zack. He regaled Axel with tales of planets that burned blue below the surface, of fair maidens that glittered like diamonds. He told Axel of the Fourth Intergalactic war, and the soldiers he'd fought alongside of. He said that General Sephiroth piloted the Masamune, and that together they swiftly took out the Wutai rebels and that when they returned, not a hair was out of place.  
  
Axel's bedtime stories were of heroes and angels and SOLDIER- and how heroes always fought for the good guys.  
  
When Zack dies- shot down on his own turf by a group of his _allies_ , they tell Axel and his little sister that Zack was a traitor. That he'd turned, and became a more dangerous enemy than any Wutai soldier. It's only later, when a man named Tseng drops by to hand off Zack's things, that they hear the true story. That their brother was experimented on, and tortured _by his own people_ , and that he'd died trying to save one of his own.  
  
That he'd succeeded. That their brother was a hero.  
  
Maybe that's when Axel had grown tired of the old stories of honor and freedom. Maybe that's when he'd realized that even pirates could have something to fight for.  
  
**2\. Piracy; or how Axel learned to be in the right place at the right time.**  
  
Most people tend to think that Axel got into the business on accident. This... is not entirely true. In fact, the whole story may be a bit too long to tell, but the long and short of it is that Axel was on a ship near the tip of the Teniyhn peninsula of Oarahn when the ship was taken by pirates. So, yes, some may say it was fate that he was on that ship, and that instead of being executed with the rest of the passangers, he showed them exactly what he was capable of.  
  
But then, most people don't know that he'd known the ship would be attacked before he boarded.  
  
**3\. Filthy, dirty trollop; you have the mouth of a harlot**  
  
"Loz noy jitat!" he hisses, banking quickly to the left to avoid a trio of low orbital schooners. Their sails are at half mast, and he's mostly sure that they haven't seen him, but there weren't supposed to be _any_ law enforcers near the docks at this time of day. He isn't prepared, and there's twice his weight in gold tucked away in a trans-dimensional compartment directly beneath the seat of his bike. Not to mention the recipe for alchemic moon-berry wine he'd stolen from the Governess of Txittua.  
  
The waters stretch out before him, glistening and purple-red with the incoming tide- Larxene's ship a hulking mass silhouetted against the setting suns, rocking quietly in the bay. Maybe if he kicks off now, he'll be able to reach it before they notice him. Surely the fuel cylinders are full by now. And they need only breach the second stratosphere before they're clear for warp. And anyway, by now Marluxia and Larxene should be used to things going wrong sometimes.  
  
The sun catches on a robotic face, warming the chill aluminum and making the wires connecting the AI's optic nerve appear seafoam green. The face is turned towards him. The sirens start whirring.  
  
"Dar'yaim!" Guess he'll be finding out.  
  
**4\. He's mixed. Like, really mixed.**  
  
When Axel tells Roxas that he's thankful that all he has to worry about is having ink-black blood running through his veins and a few weird tribal tattoos, he's being _extremely_ serious. Considering the fact that his uncle's ancestry is linked directly to a rather peculiar sub-branch of galactus cephalopods, he learned to be grateful at a very early age that he didn't inherit his uncle's tentacles. Or his great-grandmother's tusks. Or two heads, as had been the case with his mother.  
  
It's not that being a Mutt is much of a big deal in the here and now, what with sentient animals commanding ships and science centers, but when your preferred mate is an oddly naive human teenager, it's a little bit difficult to figure out how to tell him that you're maybe only eight or nine percent human.  
  
Maybe he should break the news as a joke. That might work.  
  
**5\. It was never really about the gold. Not really.**  
  
Roxas was like something impossible. He was that first glimpse of the sun after a long, cold, dark winter; he was _finding_ that fabled golden planet and keeping it. He was everything that Axel had ever lacked in his life and more.  
  
Which made things difficult since Axel was a member of a crew hell-bent on murdering him in his sleep. It wasn't personal, of course. He had a map, and Larxene wanted it. And what Larxene wanted, she got. They'd infiltrated the Naval vessel, gotten themselves hired as members of the crew, and now they would wait for the kid with the golden hair to let his guard down.  
  
Axel hadn't expected Roxas to be so... _Roxas._  
  
He hadn't expected the sudden and inexplicable desire to bring the kid soup when it became apparent that he was too afraid to brave the mess hall. Or the urge, so very strong, to let Roxas know each and every detail of his life. _Never trust pirates,_ they said, but Roxas did. He did and it hurt Axel in ways he didn't know possible that when the time came, he might not be able to stop Larxene or one of the others from slitting his throat.  
  
So he began to form a plan- a way to _keep_ Roxas. He'd take him away, get him away from this ship- him and his brother. Maybe he'd miss out on gold, but with Roxas, it hardly mattered.  
  
And then Larxene- the cut-throat little Haar'chak, went and told Roxas. Smirking all the while, she pinned him to the wall with her knives like a particularly shiny insect, and had Xigbar and Xaldin hold Axel back as she cut symbols and profanity into his skin, whispering about Axel's "betrayal" all the while. Roxas screamed and whimpered; smearing red all over his clothes. Axel had asked her to stop, ( _"please stop- please please please please, I'll do anything,_ ") but she just sliced deeper and smirked, saying- "But Axel, dear. You're clearly compromised. You couldn't think clearly if you tried, _you want to fuck him too much._ " And Roxas had flinched backwards, looking at Axel like he was the one holding the knife.  
  
She'd smiled at that; a real smile, and went back to carving the O in W-H-O-R-E into Roxas' stomach.  
  
They'd dropped him off the ship, bleeding and sobbing, straight off the ship and into the wide reaches of space. And then they let Axel go. Just like that. Like now that the temptation was gone, he'd be fine.  
  
Slapping Larxene didn't make him feel better. Stealing a schooner and catching Roxas did, even if he had to set him down on Sora's ship alone, hoping that they'd be able to help treat the wounds before Roxas bled to death.  
  
**6\. Heroes.**  
  
When Axel was young, all he wanted was to be a hero. When he actually acts like one, it leaves a bitter feeling in his gut, because Roxas still hates him.  
  
**7\. Le Amorette.**  
  
A year after the mishap with Larxene and six months after that failed attempt to confront Roxas, Axel buys a ship. She's golden and multi-faceted, bronze gears and pulleys that are more outdated than trendy, but he loves her. Below deck she is all amber light and wine red upholstery, comfortable and unbelievably gorgeous.  
  
Axel thinks that Roxas would have liked her. She isn't like Sora's ship- whose technology is all blindingly new and bright, the insides shiny silver and red- controls mostly laser and wires, robotic.  
  
He feels like a proper pirate on her, even if the only cons he pulls nowadays are done in secret, and he never touches the ones where people will get hurt. He bathes her teal phosphorescent sails in sunlight and lets them catch the winds of etherium- lets her fly.  
  
Roxas should be with him.  
  
(But he isn't.)  
  
**8\. The Strays**  
  
The shadows don't always come aboard. They like to hide in the creases of _Le Amorette's_ sails, clinging to her hull like barnacles. They don't really hurt anything, but Axel talks to them sometimes, when he's up at the wheel, watching the space whales with their families.  
  
They start to creep aboard after awhile, and when he realizes that they have a weakness for pig heart, he starts feeding them.  
  
They perch on the railing, glowing yellow eyes cutting through the gloom- some even shedding their wariness so they can perch on his shoulder and mewl like cats.  
  
The larger shadows are problematic- not only do they clutter the ship, but they're hungrier, meaner- sometimes cannibalizing the weaker ones if there's not enough meat to go around. They concern him in ways that the little ones don't, like how one day he might run out of pig heart and they might decide to try his on for size.  
  
The little ones keep them at bay though, bristling and yowling- banding together to clean them off the ship. He lets the little ones stay.  
  
**9\. He runs into Roxas sometimes.**  
  
The first time it happens, he's standing in the middle of a marketplace haggling for a pair of ox hearts, pressed in on all sides by exotic species from all over the universe. He's just starting to regret the transaction when he happens to see Roxas turning the corner over the man's shoulder. He tries to be quiet and unassuming, but when he treads on the woman's foot behind him and she starts howling at him in some language he isn't familiar with, his heart goes still.  
  
Roxas is looking at him. He's looking, watching- and there's no way that he doesn't know who Axel is. Axel may be flushed with the heat- rivulets of sweat trickling into his eyes, wearing a ridiculous hat, with a tattered black coat flapping about his knees, but Roxas _knows_ him.  
  
He flushes a deep gray, the color drifting up his neck to spread across his cheekbones, and glances down.  
  
When he looks back up, Roxas is gone and the street vendor is waving the ox hearts in his face.  
  
The second time is across a crowded room again, only this time, Axel's stripped down to nothing but his drawers, and has a losing hand sitting in one palm and a warm beer in the other. Roxas' mouth quirks- like he's about to smile, and stays long enough to watch Axel lose.  
  
The third time is during a job. He's rounding a corner, a satchel full of gems clenched in one hand when he _literally_ runs into Roxas. Roxas lets out a whoosh of air on impact and sways on his feet, tipping backwards, and Axel catches him around the waist instinctively- the memory of Roxas, clumsy with new space legs, nearly tipping over the deck of the Achereon so long ago.  
  
They stand there for a moment, listening to the shouts of the guards, Roxas' skin warming the leather jacket beneath Axel's hand. Roxas is breathing hard, and for the first time, Axel realizes that Roxas is holding a satchel of his own. Gold glitters back at him.  
  
He gapes at him, and Roxas squirms, clearly uncomfortable. "You became a _pirate?_ "  
  
Roxas scowls at him. "Yeah, well." The corners of his mouth tip up into a mean smirk, and there it is again- that look that makes Axel think he's about to get a fist to the face. "Stick to what you know."  
  
Axel laughs at that. Oh, the very thought. He can't imagine Roxas as a pirate- sweet Roxas who squirmed beneath his sheets whenever Axel came to bring him breakfast before he was properly up. "You? God, you'd be the worst pirate ever!"  
  
Roxas, who'd tied him to the rigging of his brother's ship and fucked him silly before sending him stumbling and weak-kneed back to his silly little schooner, tethered alongside _Excalibur._  
  
Okay, maybe he can see it a bit.  
  
Roxas' scowl deepens, so Axel scrambles to elaborate. "Not like that! You're just too... good. And I thought you were joining the Alliance? Becoming a good little naval officer for the side of the light or some crap."  
  
Roxas grumbles, pressing faintly back against Axel's hand. "That was Sora. Which you'd know." The unspoken _if you hadn't fucked me over_ lingers between them. The guards sound like they're getting closer.  
  
Axel smiles. "Yeah?" he says, fondly. "How does big brother like having a pirate for a sibling?" Roxas glares some more and elbows Axel in the side. He doesn't make a move to remove Axel's hand from his person.  
  
"He doesn't know."  
  
"Oh yeah?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Axel strokes a thumb over the dip of Roxas' spine and watches him shivers.  
  
"Well let's get you out of here so he doesn't find out, yeah?"  
  
**10\. Spoilers- it's a happy ending.**  
  
Roxas loves _Le Amorette_ , and spends an inordinate amount of time stroking her glimmering sails in the faint moonlight of Kizyette's third moon while Axel tampers with the gears and levers next to the wheel. Later, they find out that the shadows seem to like him too, cuddling up next to him on Axel's bed while they sleep.  
  
(And as it turns out, he's a brilliant pirate.)


End file.
